Summary of comments I'm seeing on thoughtful blogs
Virtually all liberals and Dems apparently believe...
I believe that like Islam vs Western civilization, Americans have gotten to the point where we are internally incompatible. There is no longer enough common ground that compromises can be worked out. I doubt that the incompatibility can be resolved by peaceful means-- unless one side backs down, which will amount to that side being permanently destroyed.
A public employee who wants to ban guns, and considers anyone opposed to gay marriage or open borders to be a subhuman, and who supports a politician like Chuck Schumer who wants to effectively disenfranchise Catholics and ban them from serving as judges, is unlikely to ever be able to compromise with a small business owner who desires a return to fiscal sanity in terms of the size of the public sector or their pay grade, or understands the "why" of the Second Amendment, or believes in religious freedom and intact borders.
What then, would a rational strategy for the USA today look like, given the age of chaos we are entering?
1. Close the borders. This is true for both the USA and Europe. Refugees must be turned back, by force if necessary. Ships must be denied entry, people smuggling routes closed. Borders closed with military force.
2. Recognize that existing refugee populations are time bombs. They have no job skills, most want welfare and subsidies, not work, and all are from alien civilizations that do not share Western values. They must be returned to their home countries. If Muslim, they are very likely terror sympathizers and must be deported to any Islamic country. If no country is willing to take them, then they must be deported to a country like Somalia that lacks a functioning government. African refugees are merely economic migrants and can be deported back to Africa.
3. ISIL must be totally destroyed. This means ALL members of ISIL, their allies, families, associates, teachers, mentors, sympathizers, fans, etc; must be hunted down regardless of location and exterminated. Trump needs to declare ISIL and their members as common enemies of humanity, that the Geneva Convention does not apply, and that they will be hunted down and destroyed per international law of hot pursuit. They must be granted no safe space, no sanctuary. Every country must be advised that is they harbor or support ISIL in any way they are enemies of the USA.
4. Rebuild our armed forces. Full speed ahead with new nuclear weapons, more ships, more planes, more missile defenses. Reinforce our alliance with South Korea, Japan, the Philippines, Australia, and other potential victims of China. And remind China that if North Korea continues to threaten her neighbors, the best response will be for South Korean AND Japan to join the nuclear club.
5. Recognize that Syria, as a unified nation state, is dead. (Thanks for nothing, Obama). The de facto partition of Syria is well under way. The Alawites and their Russian and Iranian allies are holding on to Damascus and about 25% of the country, mostly along the coast. The Kurds have a rump state in the center-south, ISIL has a lot of the rest, and various tribes are more or less autonomous. As I stated before, ISIL must be wiped off the map. There is no reason not to let the Kurds have independence (yes, the Turks wont like it. Stuff them). The Aramean and Syrian Christians could have their own autonomous province (ideally, in the Golan next to Israel), the Druze, likewise. Without a full scale use of Iranian forces, the Assad government lacks the resources to effectively reconquer the country. The main concern of the USA at this point is to destroy ISIL, stop the refugee flow, and make sure Assad does not rebuild his WMD's.
6. The US should work to get Iran out of Iraq, to the extent the corrupt and inefficient Iraqi government is willing to. Again, the main concern, at the moment is to destroy ISIL, but long term we do not want Iraq to be a vassal of Iran. (Yes, it may be too late to prevent Iran from taking over Iraq at this point, thanks again, Obama).
7. Recognize that the Saudis are not our friends. Yes, we have common interests in containing Iran, if possible. Yet the Saudis have been funding Madrassas and Mosques all over the world to spread Whahabi Islam. The Saudi monarchy is corrupt, dishonest, incompetent to a large degree and riddled with terror sympathizers. However, it is still better than the alternative. The US needs to help the Sauds against Iran, but at the same time we should be prepared to prevent a Shiite coup from taking place. American help should be conditioned on the Saudis stopping their support for terrorism.
It would probably be wise, as a general rule, to have contingency plans in place both to neutralize Saudi missiles, should they fall into the wrong hands, and to rescue the foreign workers (read: slaves) should the monarchy fall and a more popular (read: theocratic fascistic) government take its place.)
Evil does not destroy itself. It must be fought, not appeased. Appeasing an implacable evil is a fool's errand.
- only cops should have guns--and they're not entirely sure even cops should have 'em;
- anyone who wants to enter the U.S. should be allowed to do so;
- Islamists don't really mean what they say about taking over the world and establishing a "caliphate;" that's just hyperbole to keep their base fired up--much like Christian leaders do with their believers;
- gasoline should be either banned or taxed a lot more, since that would make people drive less or switch to electric cars;
- no one should be required to show a photo ID to vote;
- the government should make it much harder to drill for oil, and mine coal; in fact, we should consider banning both altogether since they emit the awful CO2;
- the Constitution is obsolete and should be discarded;
- "hate speech"--defined as any words that offend any "protected minority--should be forbidden;
- Christians must not be allowed to pray in schools;
- schools must teach all the precepts of Islam, because that's "just teaching history";
I believe that like Islam vs Western civilization, Americans have gotten to the point where we are internally incompatible. There is no longer enough common ground that compromises can be worked out. I doubt that the incompatibility can be resolved by peaceful means-- unless one side backs down, which will amount to that side being permanently destroyed.
A public employee who wants to ban guns, and considers anyone opposed to gay marriage or open borders to be a subhuman, and who supports a politician like Chuck Schumer who wants to effectively disenfranchise Catholics and ban them from serving as judges, is unlikely to ever be able to compromise with a small business owner who desires a return to fiscal sanity in terms of the size of the public sector or their pay grade, or understands the "why" of the Second Amendment, or believes in religious freedom and intact borders.
What then, would a rational strategy for the USA today look like, given the age of chaos we are entering?
1. Close the borders. This is true for both the USA and Europe. Refugees must be turned back, by force if necessary. Ships must be denied entry, people smuggling routes closed. Borders closed with military force.
2. Recognize that existing refugee populations are time bombs. They have no job skills, most want welfare and subsidies, not work, and all are from alien civilizations that do not share Western values. They must be returned to their home countries. If Muslim, they are very likely terror sympathizers and must be deported to any Islamic country. If no country is willing to take them, then they must be deported to a country like Somalia that lacks a functioning government. African refugees are merely economic migrants and can be deported back to Africa.
3. ISIL must be totally destroyed. This means ALL members of ISIL, their allies, families, associates, teachers, mentors, sympathizers, fans, etc; must be hunted down regardless of location and exterminated. Trump needs to declare ISIL and their members as common enemies of humanity, that the Geneva Convention does not apply, and that they will be hunted down and destroyed per international law of hot pursuit. They must be granted no safe space, no sanctuary. Every country must be advised that is they harbor or support ISIL in any way they are enemies of the USA.
4. Rebuild our armed forces. Full speed ahead with new nuclear weapons, more ships, more planes, more missile defenses. Reinforce our alliance with South Korea, Japan, the Philippines, Australia, and other potential victims of China. And remind China that if North Korea continues to threaten her neighbors, the best response will be for South Korean AND Japan to join the nuclear club.
5. Recognize that Syria, as a unified nation state, is dead. (Thanks for nothing, Obama). The de facto partition of Syria is well under way. The Alawites and their Russian and Iranian allies are holding on to Damascus and about 25% of the country, mostly along the coast. The Kurds have a rump state in the center-south, ISIL has a lot of the rest, and various tribes are more or less autonomous. As I stated before, ISIL must be wiped off the map. There is no reason not to let the Kurds have independence (yes, the Turks wont like it. Stuff them). The Aramean and Syrian Christians could have their own autonomous province (ideally, in the Golan next to Israel), the Druze, likewise. Without a full scale use of Iranian forces, the Assad government lacks the resources to effectively reconquer the country. The main concern of the USA at this point is to destroy ISIL, stop the refugee flow, and make sure Assad does not rebuild his WMD's.
6. The US should work to get Iran out of Iraq, to the extent the corrupt and inefficient Iraqi government is willing to. Again, the main concern, at the moment is to destroy ISIL, but long term we do not want Iraq to be a vassal of Iran. (Yes, it may be too late to prevent Iran from taking over Iraq at this point, thanks again, Obama).
7. Recognize that the Saudis are not our friends. Yes, we have common interests in containing Iran, if possible. Yet the Saudis have been funding Madrassas and Mosques all over the world to spread Whahabi Islam. The Saudi monarchy is corrupt, dishonest, incompetent to a large degree and riddled with terror sympathizers. However, it is still better than the alternative. The US needs to help the Sauds against Iran, but at the same time we should be prepared to prevent a Shiite coup from taking place. American help should be conditioned on the Saudis stopping their support for terrorism.
It would probably be wise, as a general rule, to have contingency plans in place both to neutralize Saudi missiles, should they fall into the wrong hands, and to rescue the foreign workers (read: slaves) should the monarchy fall and a more popular (read: theocratic fascistic) government take its place.)
Evil does not destroy itself. It must be fought, not appeased. Appeasing an implacable evil is a fool's errand.
posted by SF at
9:17 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home